VAU is dedicated to empowering all generations of disabled veterans to fully live their lives and honoring our fallen military service members.

Impact

VAU served 384 and 485 veterans with disabilities and caregivers through our numerous accessible retreats and adaptive sports program in 2015 and 2016, respectively. We plan to increase the impacted families and veterans to approximately 600 in 2017.

VAUs VetNet program has assisted numerous veterans to find quality jobs over the past 3 years. We connect veterans with organizations and other resources to assist them in their transition.

VAU sponsored Sua T, a quadriplegic, special forces veteran to compete in Warrior Games and Invictus Games. He presented VAU with his gold medal from quad rugby.

Needs

Veterans Adaptive Sports program: A key mission focuses on providing disabled veterans the ability to attend adaptive athletic events in order to pursue their dreams at National Winter Sports Clinic, Wheelchair Games, and Rugby, for example.

Veterans Retreats: VAU offers accessible wellness retreats throughout the Mid-Atlantic region—from the beach to the mountains—bringing together vets, their families and caregivers for a much needed respite from their day-to-day challenges.

Monthly BBQ and Fishing: At our Richmond HQ retreat, VAU provides a monthly opportunity for disabled veterans to come together for camaraderie and support from fellow veterans.

VetNet program: directly connecting veterans, family members and local service members to employment, benefits, education and family support opportunities.

VAU Fallen Heroes Memorial: Part of our VAU Mission has been to create a traveling Accessible Fallen Heroes Memorial (AFHM). With additional funding, we will be able to contract with Veteran owned companies to construct the memorial.

BackgroundWe are an all-volunteer Veterans 501(c)(3) non-profit organization. VAU is founded by combat veterans with disabilities and run by Veterans and caring professionals. In 2016 we were privileged to have a major impact on 485 disabled veterans, caregivers and family members through our various programs and retreats. We anticipate growing our impacts to more than 600 families in 2017.

VAU is dedicated to empowering all generations of disabled veterans to fully live their lives and honoring those who have made the ultimate sacrifice in service to this great country.

CEO Statement

VAU recognizes the special sacrifices of our men and women who served in uniform by meeting a humanitarian need beyond that normally provided by the Department of Veterans Affairs, other hospitals or recreational facilities.

Our all-volunteer board and staff of disabled veterans runs on an operational cost less than 2%, ensuring every dime goes to improving the lives of these veterans and their families. Donations are used to support our retreats, sports, VetNet, and Jaques Fontan Warrior dog programs for disabled veterans and family members to participate in these life changing experiences.

Board Chair StatementWe are extremely proud of the life-changing, -enhancing, and -enabling impacts we have been able to make across the community we serve. Our impacts are personal to us and our beneficiaries because of the many experiences and frustrations we share. We are challenged because we presently rely 100% on volunteer contributions. to provide these services As we look to expand our missions, we realize that we may need additional help that is dedicated to our causes. Our goal is to maintain our volunteer culture and at the same time improve our administration so we can deliver consistently excellent services. We know that the administrative duties are better filled by paid personnel. Funds provided by your program will enable us to keep our goal to use an extraordinarily large percentage of donated funds to directly benefit disabled veterans. Without your support, we will potentially have to compromise our mission or our quality; choices we hope to avoid.

Areas of Service

Areas Served

Area

Metro Richmond

Statewide

Our focus is on Virginia, then the Mid-Atlantic. We hope to eventually expand our impacts to a National scope.

Board Chair

Board Chair James Howard

Company AffiliationPresident

TermJuly 2015 to July 2019

Emailhoward82nd@yahoo.com

Board of Directors

Board Members

Name

Affiliation

Dee Bogetti

JFWD Trainer director

Jon Burnley

Retreats/Adventures director

Steve Edson

Fundraiser director

James Howard

President

Theresa Kelly

Womens Vet group director

Josh Lindsey

VP

Brian Marley

VetNet director

David Wilkinson

JFWD Director

David Wilkinson

Treasurer

Board Demographics - Ethnicity

African American/Black2

Asian American/Pacific Islander0

Caucasian9

Hispanic/Latino1

Native American/American Indian1

Board Demographics - Gender

Male11

Female2

Governance

Board Term Lengths2

Board Term Limits2

Board Meeting Attendance %90

Written Board Selection Criteria?Under Development

Written Conflict of Interest Policy?Yes

Percentage Making Monetary Contributions100

Percentage Making In-Kind Contributions100

Number of Full Board Meetings Annually12

Other Boards

The tables below contain information about other groups that advise this nonprofit on operations and projects.

Advisory Board Members

Name

Affiliation

COL(ret) William Barrett

volunteer advisor

CPT(ret) Aaron Dimmock

volunteer advisor

SFC(ret) Jerry Kykisz

volunteer advisor

MG (ret) John Lenti

volunteer advisor

SFC(ret) Lane McKinney

volunteer advisor

COL(ret) Eddie Ray

volunteer advisor

SSG(ret) Jeremy Wilczek

volunteer advisor

Comments

VAU is 501c3 non-profit organization EIN 46-1844248. Our board and staff are all unpaid volunteers that puts countless hours into the organization. We have a give/get policy where every board member donates to the organization. Donations are critical to helping us fulfill our mission. VAU runs on overhead costs that are less than 2%. We exhaust all other resources and partnerships with great nonprofits in the community and nationwide to full fill our mission.

Executive Director

Executive Director James Howard

ExperienceJames Howard, CPT, USA (ret.). James grew up in Lynchburg, Va and graduated from the Virginia Military Institute in 2002. He commissioned in the Army having the privilege to serve 2002-2010 with the 82nd Airborne and Special Forces training. He served overseas in Iraq where he escaped some close calls and at the end of his military career he suffered a accident that left him paralyzed as a quadriplegic.

His injury has been a blessing by misfortune which led him to start 2 non-profits, REACHcycles and VAU, that support children and veterans with disabilities. He also works and volunteers for many other non-profit organizations that support the veteran and disabled community: SOCOM Care Coalition mentor, Quality of Life Foundation Family- Case Manager, Chris Reeve Foundation- Military Veterans Program MVP Coordinator and Paralyzed Vets of America- volunteer.

We provide opportunities to Veterans with disabilities through a series of service partnerships and internal programs. These partnerships present our Veterans with athletic and recreational challenges to empower them to achieve athletic goals beyond their disabilities.

VAU offers accessible wellness retreats throughout the Mid-Atlantic region—from the beach to the mountains—bringing together vets, their families and caregivers for a much needed respite from their day-to-day challenges and struggles.

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VAU Lake House Retreat

The retreat is located in South Richmond, Virginia on a Lake 15min from the VA. It can accommodate 2-3 families for lodging and is accessible for all disabilities. Monthly BBQ and fishing events are held for any veterans interested and Hunter McGuire VA inpatient/outpatient veterans who wish to receive a healing day away from the VA.

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BBQ/Fishing Retreat Dates every 4th Wednesday of the month (4PM-8PM)

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We provide an environment where disabled veterans can learn from their brothers in arms going through similar situations and making the best of it. The retreat is open to severely disabled veterans and their families who need a place to stay while their Veterans are at the Hunter McGuire VA or overflow from Fisher House.

At VetNet RVA we are creating opportunities for Veterans through networking by connecting them with local resources for jobs, benefits, education, and family support.

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We meet on the 1st Tuesday of the month supporting local service members, Veterans, and family members by providing a welcome environment to network. We believe that the most effective way to help Veterans in Richmond is to plug them into local connections directly, rather than just giving them a phone number or email.

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It is through empowering our community of local Veterans, Veteran-owned businesses, local nonprofits, and resource providers that we create successful transitions for Veterans from the military back to civilian life.

Part of our VAU Mission has been to create a traveling Accessible Fallen Heroes Memorial (AFHM). The memorial will be headquartered at our Veterans Retreat in Richmond, Virginia, a serene location that sits on a lake where we offer many programs and activities for disabled veterans and their family members

Veteran owned companies will construct a 100 ft accessible boardwalk on the lake with a large retaining wall that will hold numerous Memorial artifacts. These artifacts will consist of a large American flag designed out of the 6800 plus dog tags of those who have fallen in the War on Terror. 50 gold stars will be placed with in the flag to honor and recognize gold star families from all 50 states.

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This Memorial will be built by Veterans for Veterans and many others. We have raised the majority of funds to complete the first phase of the memorial from disabled veterans affiliated with our all volunteer non-profit.

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Tentative completion date 11 SEP 2017

Budget$100,000.00

CEO/ED/Board Comments

Testimonials from caregivers and vets supported through our programs.

Mary’s husband Terry is a Desert Storm Air Force veteran who was left a quadriplegic as a result of a tragic accident. His recovery has been long, slow and arduous. A patient of McGuire Veterans Hospital for more than a year, Terry was recently diagnosed with leukemia.

Because of this communities generosity and the donations, Mary is able to travel more frequently from their home in Front Royal to spend time with Terry and help with his recovery. Without the critical aid that VAU provides through lodging, caregiver support and coordinating home modification support, Mary would be unable to travel as often and Terry would be left to cope with his recovery without his family by his side.

“We are so blessed with all the great support from VAU and cannot thank them enough for their continued commitment during these times for our family and so many other veterans and caregivers."

It was our privilege to support a Green Beret Josh L. coping with combat TBI/PTSD through our VAU adaptive sports program. We are proud he won the team shoot at the ASA 3D archery tournament at Fort Benning. See in his own words how this support continues to have a major impact on his life..."On my fifth deployment I got the business end of an IED or roadside bomb. At the time I was unaware of how profoundly I would be affected by what had happened. I suffered a brain injury, an invisible injury. Being in a blast that size is pretty crazy, and a bit scary. I have found myself in and out of doctors appointments, literally hundreds of doctors appointments and a very very changed man. Archery has been so many things for me. But more than anything it has been a metric for my recovery. The most amazing thing it has done for me is show my kids that just because I am hurt... I am not worthless.

I have a reason to get out of bed and something to do while I slowly, get better. I am deeply thankful for VAU supporting my passion and recovery through this program" J.L.